My Word

To the disciples and worshipers of The Wall Street Journal as their bible, who glorify big business as the supplier of jobs and prosperity, complaining of any government regulation as evil and unfair oppression, ignoring the obscene salaries of big business executives, even in our hospitals, as well as banking, insurance, oil and auto companies, I commend the writings of Thomas Paine, particularly “Common Sense.” It ignited our revolution against unrestrained power.

The number of civilian employees in the U.S. Department of Defense has grown by 7 percent since 2009, while the number military personal has declined by 8 percent.

If we get into a war armed only with pencils we will surely win by force of numbers – 750,000 of them and counting. Even the military has been ceded to the bureaucrats. These are pencil pushers who haven’t a clue to the difference between a strategy and a tactic. Add to this all the improvements in armament, which have been scrapped plus exploding increase in terrorist worldwide it really gets scary.

Let’s talk about alcohol and drug abuse. What’s that have to do with conservatism?

One of the definitions of conservatism is cautious. My good friend the late Tom Cobb’s favorite expression was “all things in moderation.” My little chair side dictionary says moderation is another word for temperance.

I had an uncle who was a functioning alcoholic. When he died of lung cancer –he couldn’t control his smoking either – we had to hire two people to replace him.

The following is the Shelbyville Area NAACP’s Statement on Furguson, MO.

We the Shelbyville Area NAACP, would like to speak to our local community about the Furguson, Mo., incident. We want our local community to know that the local branch stands with the national NAACP on this issue.

A chap by the name of Craig Lindsay wrote a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal, which appeared in the Nov. 8 edition. His thesis is that a successful economy run by a private enterprise economy in a political environment of freedom within the law truly does lift all boats.

The problem is it also produces outstanding success stories to which the ever-present “left” can view with alarm exclaiming “Hey, wait a minute. You’re not getting your fair share, these dirty capitalists are getting rich off your sweat.”

In the 18th century Samuel Johnson said, “Whatever you make, spend less.” In the 20th century Howard Pearce said, “You can go in debt for a home or a business, but for anything else if you can’t pay cash you don’t need it.”

The first thing you must learn is to be able to distinguish between NEED and WANT. Above all if you can’t pay 100% of your credit and debt when due, cut the card up.

Regarding the letter “Looking for equal treatment with fairness” that ran in the October 22 edition of The Sentinel-News, most individuals who populate Shelby County are unaware that a problem exists among our youth where homelessness is an issue – which is what the author professes. That encompasses youths in both lifestyles – heterosexual or alternative lifestyles.

When I was growing up, one of my best friends was Meme Greenwell – her dad, Richard “Puss” Greenwell, was a teacher, football coach and later principal for Shelbyville High School. Her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. S.V. Greenwell, lived on Henry Clay Street – where until recent years the storm door still featured the “G” on the front.

I remember “Puss” talking about his brother “Jake” who was killed in World War II.